Apple Still Negotiating With Music Labels Over Streaming Terms Days Before WWDC Launch

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Days before Apple is expected to announce its rebranded and revamped version of Beats Music at WWDC, the Cupertino company is still negotiating terms with music labels, reports Bloomberg. Last month, it was also reported that the two sides had not reached a deal.

beats-music-app-ios.jpeg

The labels are pushing to get a larger chunk of revenue than they receive under their current deals with Spotify Ltd., a competing streaming service, people familiar with the negotiations said. Both sides want to complete a deal before Apple's June 8 annual event in San Francisco for more than 5,000 developers, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are continuing.
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Currently, labels receive 55% of Spotify's $9.99 monthly rate while publishers take 15%. Music labels are hoping to take closer to 60% from Apple, according to the report. Previously, rumors have suggested that Apple was seeking an agreement that allow it to offer a streaming music service to customers for $7.99 a month rather than the standard $9.99 rate. However, Apple was forced to back down after record labels resisted the change.

Additionally, Apple has allegedly been urging music labels to cease offering licenses for freemium tiers that Spotify and other music services offer as the Cupertino company does not plan to offer a free tier with its new streaming service. These efforts have earned Apple scrutiny from government organizations like the European Commission and U.S. Department of Justice, as the two groups are said to be looking into Apple's negotiations.

It's likely Apple still plans to unveil its new streaming service at WWDC, as the two sides want to complete a deal before June 8's keynote address. The new Music app is said to include the rebranded streaming service, a revamped version of iTunes Radio and traditional downloaded music. Apple also plans to offer exclusive content, like behind-the-scenes video from recording sessions. Artists will also get their own pages where they can host videos, songs and other content for free as part of a program called Apple Connect, with Apple compensating the artists and labels for songs they give away.

Article Link: Apple Still Negotiating With Music Labels Over Streaming Terms Days Before WWDC Launch
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/06/04/apple-labels-final-negotiations/
Given the lack of music deal, absence of new Apple TV hardware, and google photos stealing their thunder, this keynote's looking a little like:

- wow, we made a lot of money
- here's what's new with OS X... oh wait, we thought we'd just focus on fixing the existing screw ups.
- Here's what's new with iOS... that thing about fixing screw ups? Yeah, we'll do that there too.
- Dammit, we're PRIVATE! We'll bill the snot out of y'all, but we won't sell your data to anyone! Really! That's why we're great!
- Uh... here's Cold Play.
- Bye... go program something.
 
flaw600 said:
Can you provide links? I'm curious to know what kinda deals got done at the last second xD. Thanks!
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When I said "Deals", i was referring to keynotes.

Couple of examples:
Steve Jobs almost scrapped the original iMac launch at the last second because of the CD drive.
The iPhone demo was strictly a golden path affair.
 
I hate the scumbag labels. They don't care one whit if artists get a dime... they want the maximum amount for doing the LEAST.
Why would Apple pay MORE than Spotify?? Because eventually they have the ability to eclipse Spotify in users and make the labels a boatload more?? So, to your potentially most lucrative partner ever.... may as well try to give them the WORST deals & terms? What clowns. I wish a model would arise destroying them. I'd love it. I'd literally drive to the welfare office to laugh in the face of all the unemployed music execs. They are the bottom feeding thieves that represent 100% of what people are talking about when they mention the "shady" part of the music industry.
 
But I thought that's why Apple spent $3B on Beats, because Jimmy was their meal ticket to deals with the labels. I saw a tweet from someone the other day who said the U2 album giveaway was one of the worst decisions Eddy Cue has made. It pissed off labels and other artists and now the labels are making negotiations more difficult. Dumb, Apple, Dumb. :rolleyes:
 
Apple as the low-cost competitor? I would have expected them to charge a premium and insist that it is "magical".
 
At this rate the only thing unveiled at WWDC will be .... new emojis.:p

Labels are just like RE agents....parasites. Neither create anything nor provide any benefit to the creator of the product (musicians/builders) or consumers of the product (music lovers/homeowners). Actually cable companies fall into the parasite category also.
 
Yelmurc said:
Apple always likes to be in control. Its a shame they won't spend some of that 150 billion in the bank to produce and own their own content in music and video. If the music and Cable companies won't play ball go around them.
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Seriously??? Apple is smart enough to leave that stuff to the pros. They are not in the business of making music and videos. They are in the business of creating hardware and software that helps creators do that.
 
2010mini said:
Seriously??? Apple is smart enough to leave that stuff to the pros. They are not in the business of making music and videos. They are in the business of creating hardware and software that helps creators do that.
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Apple would be dead company a long time ago if they did all the things these armchair CEO's spout off about.
 
Tycho24 said:
I hate the scumbag labels. They don't care one whit if artists get a dime... they want the maximum amount for doing the LEAST.
Why would Apple pay MORE than Spotify?? Because eventually they have the ability to eclipse Spotify in users and make the labels a boatload more?? So, to your potentially most lucrative partner ever.... may as well try to give them the WORST deals & terms? What clowns. I wish a model would arise destroying them. I'd love it. I'd literally drive to the welfare office to laugh in the face of all the unemployed music execs. They are the bottom feeding thieves that represent 100% of what people are talking about when they mention the "shady" part of the music industry.
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I totally agree, but what people don't realize is that apple almost is the enablers of the music industry. other than google play i can't really think of an online source where people buy and sell music that has as large of a name as iTunes. Not to mention the iPod.

i Feel like apple should offer a Premium music service, apple is a premium priced company and i don't really feel like paying $10 to someone else for no specific reason. you know what i'll lose? my entire music collection as well as all my playlists, and they'll be a total bitch to transfer them over without spending at least an hour or two. I'll also miss all the people who post playlists to spotify. I've been a google play music member for about 10 months, i switched to beats music and really gave it a fair chance for 2 months and found the "discovery" type features absolutely terrible, and the minuscule amount of beats music playlists were equally as terrible, and i mean night and day when compared to Spotify or Google play music. So what if its integrated and works with "handoff" i can already use handoff on all my devices with spotify installed without even having to touch them, if i want to play a song on my Mac in my bedroom i can have it playing before i even get in the room, and i couldn't do that with handoff without sitting down first.

I'm a huge apple fanboy, I own the latest Macbook Pro, the apple watch, and latest iPhone 6+, but i also own non apple devices and use linux on my non mac computers, so if i switched to my fourth music streaming service it would be google play thanks to the youtube music video integration as well as running on anything with a browser installed as well as every platform i can basically imagine that is still relevant.
 
Tycho24 said:
I hate the scumbag labels. They don't care one whit if artists get a dime... they want the maximum amount for doing the LEAST.
Why would Apple pay MORE than Spotify?? Because eventually they have the ability to eclipse Spotify in users and make the labels a boatload more?? So, to your potentially most lucrative partner ever.... may as well try to give them the WORST deals & terms? What clowns. I wish a model would arise destroying them. I'd love it. I'd literally drive to the welfare office to laugh in the face of all the unemployed music execs. They are the bottom feeding thieves that represent 100% of what people are talking about when they mention the "shady" part of the music industry.
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As opposed to Apple who only cares about the artists and always gives their competitors good deals.
 
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